Organized crime affects law enforcement efforts in many countries. As a result, governments need to come up with effective enforcement strategies that are responsive to evolving crime trends. Organized crime is a form of crime that is committed by sophisticated criminal networks which engage in different forms of illegal conspiracies. Organized crime creates an environment of lawlessness in a particular location and thrives due to social and economic inequalities.
There are many factors that make it easy for criminal networks to carry out their activities without being deterred by law enforcement agencies. Inadequate resources, lack of tactical awareness, corruption and ineffective laws allow criminals to commit serious offences. This paper will discuss various issues that impact on organized crime and how they affect law enforcement in different areas where they are practiced.
Organized crime syndicates in various countries have been accused of using their transnational networks to engage in different types of illegal activities. Unethical behavior, rampant corruption and collusion by law enforcement officers make it possible for criminal syndicates to carry out their illegal activities with little or no interference from the state. In many instances, illegal schemes perpetuated by criminals make it difficult for law enforcement agencies to distinguish between legal and illegal business enterprises (Mallory, 2007, p. 56).
In the last three decades, there has been an increase in criminal enterprises that seek to gain high returns from illegal activities. However, in many instances, these enterprises are able to acquire a significant amount of power that allows them to influence the legislative agenda of different territories they operate in.
Criminal organizations are increasingly relying on different technological platforms to communicate and share ideas on how to evade arrests by law enforcement agencies. In addition, they are using proxy companies to cover up their activities to enable them to save large amounts of money which they obtain from criminal activities.
Despite these changes, crime intelligence and analysis strategies have not evolved to deal effectively with these new threats on law and order. Law enforcement officers lack the necessary resources required to deal effectively with complex criminal schemes that are planned and executed by large criminal organizations (Mallory, 2007, p. 59). It has become critical for law enforcement agencies to rely on different forms of tactical analysis to monitor new organized criminal trends and the impacts they have on different societies.
More importantly, ineffective laws do not place more emphasis on information sharing and this loophole makes it difficult for law enforcement officers to prevent serious criminal offenses from happening. As a result, criminal organizations find it easy to execute their activities without any form of deterrence from law enforcement agencies. The causal links between organized crime and socio-economic problems have not been adequately addressed in many countries (Mallory, 2007, p. 67).
This has made it easy for criminal syndicates to control poor urban settlements because they offer unemployed youth economic opportunities which elected governments cannot offer. Therefore, it is important for law enforcement agencies to appreciate the sociological factors that expose young people to crime to come with more effective remedies. They need to win the minds and hearts of residents in poor neighbourhoods to encourage them through community policing initiatives that address different criminal situations.
There are different legal limitations which hamper the fight against organized crime. Criminal experts argue that drug trafficking in Pakistan and Afghanistan enables terrorist groups to acquire funding which they use to destabilize governments. As a result, they are able to network with other terrorist cells in other parts of the world easily because they have the financial power needed to disguise their activities.
Policy makers are always distracted by bipartisan interests and they are slow to react to different criminal trends that pose a grave danger to national security. Criminal networks find it easy to clean up dirty proceeds from their activities through legitimate economic channels without being subjected to scrutiny (Mallory, 2007, p. 72). In many instances, financial firms are unwilling to reveal the nature of their dealings with large criminal enterprises to law enforcement agencies because they generate a lot of profits from such activities.
The United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime is one of the internationally recognized legal frameworks that outline steps governments need to follow to deal with organized crime.
However, its main weakness is the inability by foreign governments to share information with one another on how to eliminate intricate transnational criminal networks. Some countries have failed to institute extradition treaties with one another and as a result, they provide a safe haven to vicious international criminals (Hauck, & Peterke, 2010, p. 414).
In some instances, law enforcement officers have to get court orders first before they are allowed to search the premises of criminal suspects and this makes it difficult for them to stop different criminal incidents from happening. The Money Laundering Act of 2009 has helped to combat the activities of different criminal syndicates in the U.S. However, criminal forensic experts have argued that financial institutions are reluctant to cooperate with the F.B.I and this has failed to stop high incidents of money laundering.
Proper planning and allocation of resources will make it possible for law enforcement agencies to deal with different crimes more effectively. For instance, field agent utilization by the F.B.I. is not effective and this makes it difficult for the agency to arrest and charge various suspects before law courts.
As a result, there are so many locations that are underserved by federal agents and this hampers the fight against organized crime across the country (Hauck, & Peterke, 2010, p. 421). They need to invest in more efficient data analysis and information gathering techniques to ensure they are more proactive towards solving different types of crimes that happen in different areas. Consequently, they will be in a position to deal with complex crimes that happen in and outside their legal jurisdictions more effectively.
Technological solutions need to be deployed more to equip law enforcement officers with appropriate strategies to deal with complex crimes. This will allow agents to locate the movements of different criminal suspects and as a result, they will be in a position to reduce the threats they pose to law and order. Federal officers also need to be equipped with information technology skills to allow them to locate various cyber criminals who use the internet to defraud business organizations and individuals.
This approach will enable law enforcement officers to use more effective strategies to resolve different types of crimes (Hauck, & Peterke, 2010, p. 429). Information sharing between different security agencies in the country should be encouraged. This will allow law enforcement officers to prosecute more criminal suspects to reduce crime rates.
References
Hauck, P. & Peterke, S. (2010). Organized crime and gang violence in national and international law. International Review of the Red Cross, 92 (878), 407-436.
Mallory, S.L. (2007). Understanding organised crime. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.